Organic Dreams Synthetic Means grew out of extensive investigation into the material properties of fiberglass rods and their use as a sculptural material. The artist questioned what forms could be made with bundled and adhered fiberglass rods that couldn’t be accomplished with other structural materials. What makes this material behavior unique and what formal and structural proclivity does this specific material have? Additionally, what does it mean for a sculpture to project off of a wall twenty feet while responding to the environment in which it’s housed? Although it is clearly synthetic - a man-made composite product of design and fabrication, the structure and materiality have affinities to several biological systems and processes that directly relate to the buildings purpose in which the artwork is housed. Through the use of physical testing of components and subassemblies of the pieces used in the final artwork, material properties specific to the bundled fiberglass composites were used to understand the structural performance of the artwork in its final form.

Organic Dreams Synthetic Means, cantilevered from a wall in the Advanced Research and Teaching Building in Iowa State University should not be viewed as a biological model of a specific entity, but instead, be left open to interpretation by the viewer regardless of their field of inquiry.